In the field of network management, software agents installed on managed network devices are used to collect telemetry data (also referred to herein as event data) from the managed network devices. Many disadvantages exist with the use of such agents, however. For example, the quality of telemetry data originated from such agents is directly related to the capabilities of the deployed agents. And many agents lack fine grain controls to discriminate between significant and insignificant events. Thus, the agents may send all event data of a particular severity to a management server, resulting in a poor ratio in the number of actionable events compared to the total number of events received at the management server.
What is needed is a system and method for filtering and suppressing event data in a way that removes non-actionable or otherwise unnecessary event data. A structured feedback mechanism is also needed so that such filtering can be improved over time.